Phase #1: a drama queen

The trucks engine rumbled to a stop as Laiel placed the diesel in park, Siri was busy chirping at her that she’d ’arrived at her destination’ from her phone. “Thanks, genius,” Laiel mumbled at the phone, rolling her eyes. The phone had only sent her down 3 different dead ends before finally sending her to the right place, a useless thing. Though she didn’t think she’d have ever found it on her own, so perhaps she couldn’t complain. But whatever, at least they arrived safely, even if it was a few hours later than she expected.

She pushed her curly hair off her shoulder and strolled towards the small cottage style office, the powdered blue walls and white roof were quaint. She was rather a fan of it, she gripped the copper door handle and turned, pushing the door inward, a gust of cool air rushing past her face, ruffling her hair, she gazed around the inside of the office, it had a nice wooden interior, she let her eyes settle on the receptionist at the front desk who looked busy filing paperwork like crazy. 

“Hey,” Laiel said, approaching the desk and drumming her fingers across the edge of the desk. “Uhm, I’m Laiel, I’m here for my draw for the loshenka makeover?” 

The young woman’s head popped up, “oh hey! So sorry about that, the name’s cherry,” the redhead woman chirped out. “You said your name was Laiel correct? That would be Laiel broker? With Bluestem Spring Ranch?” 

“Yes ma’am,” Laiel grinned, her smile threatening to split her face. She was eager for the challenge though she knew it was going to be difficult, especially considering she didn’t even know what issue her horse had, much less how she’d fix it just yet.

Cherry rummaged through a thick stack of files and pulled one out, slapping it down on the table. “Oooo-Kay, let’s see who we have for ya here,” she drawled out, her southern accent clearer than ever.

Laiel leaned slightly over the desk to get a peek at the folder.

“Oooh this is a fun one,” cherry chuckled out “you got sangria, she’s a gorgeous little mare but… well, you’ll see,” cherry stood up, her rolling chair hitting the cabinets, “follow me,”

Laiel jogged after the other woman, she wouldn’t lie and say the mention of the mare being a ‘fun’ one didn’t make her incredibly dubious, but she did her best to shake it off, they approached a small wooden gate, attached to a gorgeous white wood fence.

“You guys sure have a nice facility here,” Laiel said smiling softly, it truly was a stunning set up. 

“Thanks, my aunt and uncle are the ones who ‘own’ it, though it’s really a community thing.” Cherry replied, shrugging “but we love being able to help horses. The mare you drew, Sangria here,” Cherry paused to nod towards a buckskin Overo mare that was approaching slowly, “she’s a personal favourite of a lot of our volunteers, she is a bit of a drama queen in all honesty though,”

“Oh?” Laiel asked, raising a brow, holding her hand out for a mare to sniff at. it wasn’t like she hadn’t dealt with horses that had a bit of a temperamental streak. “Do you know anything on her background?” She asked, trying to figure out as much information as she possibly could.

“Well the sitch from what I understand is that some rich old guy bought her for his teen daughter to show right, and she loved this little mare, at the start anyways, she wasn’t super experienced, more like a beginner, and Sangria needs an experienced rider, but the girl thought she was ‘pretty’ because colours what everyone’s number one priority should be when buying a horse,” cherry snorted sarcastically. “Anyways, Sangria at one point got into a bit of an incident, ran herself into a fence and required a few stitches on her knee right?” She pointed towards a small scar on the mare's front right knee. “Well, she was limping for a while, and since she was limping the daughter, rightfully so, refused to use her until she recovered. So she waited a few weeks and eventually Sangria stopped limping. One day she took out sangrias halter, and went to catch her, well the second she saw the halter sangria started limping,”

Laiel sighed and rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t help but chuckle at the slightly overweight mare. “So you're a big faker ain’t ya baby,” Laiel laughed at the mare who snorted, rooting around in the woman’s pocket for treats, “sorry girly, didn’t bring any treats with me.” The brunette woman shrugged.

“Yeah, she’s a faker,” Cherry laughed, shaking her head. “The issue was, this girl and her father didn’t think or know horses were smart enough to figure out how to fake limp. So this man dropped thousands of dollars on vet tests from a bunch of different vets since no one would or could turn anything up since there wasn’t actually anything wrong with her. Other then you know, she was lazy, and she was a spoiled rotten on her stall rest weeks,” 

“Let me guess, she felt bad that her precious mare was stuck in a small box so the only logical explanation was to feed the horse treats… constantly,” Laiel groaned.

“Tsk, it’s like you’ve almost been in a situation like this before.” 

“My first pony did the same thing to, brat of a horse,” Laiel shrugged as she bent over to pick up the mare's hooves, who grunted and pulled away. “Uh uh, hoof” Laiel scolded slightly, running her hand back down the mare's leg and squeezing her tendon ever so slightly. This time sangria allowed it, though it was clearly begrudgingly. 

Laiel inspected her carefully, going around each hoof. “Well, she doesn’t seem to be foundered so at least there’s that.”

Cherry smiled softly “thankfully she’s not, she should lose weight pretty quick, we had her a good weight for awhile over winter, but in springs we open for people to come spend time with some of our rescues, just to try and get the rescues that are close to being adopted out used to people right. And unfortunately, parents with little kids aren’t always understanding that signs saying ‘don’t feed the horses without permission’ means don’t let your children feed the ponies without permission as well.” Cherry huffed, looking rather cross. 

“But that about all the information I know, sorry,” Cherry shrugged, a small frown appearing on her face. “You think your ready to accept the challenge.” 

“Absolutely!” Laiel laughed, “not sure how you fix a faker of a horse but I’ll do my best, right Mrs. Sangria?” She stroked the mares face idly as she spoke. “Does she have a halter?” 

“Yes she does, I’ll go grab it!” Cherry rushed off leaving Laiel to get to know Sangria for a few minutes, and Laiel spent every moment she could checking over the mare. 

She seemed to have good confirmation, and her attitude seemed okay, for now anyways, but that probably had something to do with the fact there was a halter around.

Soon cherry had returned, and they got the halter fixed on the mares face. 

“Okay, let’s get you loaded up,” laiel smiled softly at the mare as she took a few steps towards the gate. Sangria followed but slowly, and with an incredibly prominent limp “oh don’t even with me you big faker.” She chucked, shaking her head, wagging her finger at the mare in an exaggerated manner. After a few minutes of slow walking with the Grammy worthy actor of a mare they reached the trailer, she loaded surprisingly well, and after the paperwork was filled out they were ready to go. The start of the makeover was underway, and Laiel had to admit, she was feeling optimistic.